Get Familiar: Meet Ake Festival guest, Alain Mabanckou

It is exactly one week to the 2016 Ake Arts and Book Festival in Abeokuta. There will be a music concert with Brymo, Falana and Adunni&Nefretiti, book chats, panel discussion, documentaries, 3 short films showing for the first time in Africa at the festival and more. You don’t want to miss it, go register at akefestival.org.

In our Get Familiar series today, we introduce- Alain Mabanckou.

Alain Mabanckou is a Congolese author, journalist, poet and academic who was born in Congo- BrFebruaryle in Febuary 1966. Alain grew up and was educated in Congo before receiving a scholarship to study in France at the age of 22.

His first novel, Bleu-Blanc-Rouge( Blue-White-Red) was published in 1998. In 1998, the book won him the Grand prix littéraire d’Afrique noire in 1999. This win propelled him to continue writing. He published many fiction work and poetry. His most popular book is Verre Cassé (Broken Glass), a comic novel centered on a Congolese former teacher and life in the bar he now frequents.Verre cassé has been adapted into several theatrical adaptations. In 2009 it was translated into English as Broken Glass.

In 2006 Alain’s Memoires de porc-épic (Memoirs of a Porcupine), was published. The book garnered the Prix Renaudot, one of the highest distinctions in French literature.

In 2002, Mabanckou kicked off his academic career when he went to teach Francophone Literature at the University of Michigan as an Assistant Professor. In 2006 by the University of California Los Angeles, where he is now a full Professor in the French Department. He currently lives in Santa Monica, California. He was appointed Visiting Professor at the Collège de France (Chair of Artistic Creation) for 2016.